A New Beginning....

Well, I must say that my first few days here in Perpignan have been rather tumultuous, many highs and lows. Living in a foreign country definitely begins as an emotional roller coaster ride.

I have now settled into my home with my host family and it is not like my true home; however as a substitute it definitely works. I miss much about Canadian culture, particularly the things we do not often think about and take for granted...like shower curtains and fabric softner. But, there are some cool things about Europe that I definitely say we lack in North America. For instance, meals are always at the kitchen table with the family - breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is a great time for the family to just talk about everything going on, mind you at the moment I am finding it difficult to always follow along because they talk fast and switch in and out of French to Spanish and Catalan. My family is quite the multilingual bunch.

Some oddities I have noticed:
1) All cars here are tiny and standard, something I know my brother would be a fan of.
2) The streets are filled with lots of people all the time.
3) There is a rooster somewhere in the vicinity of my house and it cock-a-doodle doos
4) There is a weird animal, that might be a donkey i am not sure, up the street from my house. It is brown and kinda freaks me out because I don't know what it is exactly or what it is doing there.

Also, a Mel anecdote to share, yes one already:
On Friday I was driven to the university by Sandra's boyfriend because he was driving her to school. Coming home started off well but turned bad and then ugly. Not particularly the best moment of my life, nor my proudest and definitely something I never plan on repeating. I got lost. At my transfer stop, I didn't realize I was not on the right side to catch my bus, even though all the people I asked said I was. Finally I just ask the bus driver because it was getting late and I only had time to catch the last bus home to Canohes or I'd be stranded in Perpignan. I got to the right side and caught my bus. On the way home though I couldn't figure out where I was supposed to get off, nothing looked famliar. I ended up at the end of the line and nowhere near my house and no more bus to try again. I also had no cell or phone number to call my family (stupid move on my part). I asked a girl on the bus if she knew how to get to my street bc she was waiting for her mom to pick her up. She said no but offered me a ride. I declined and decided to call my parents in Canada to get the number and go from there. The phone was not working, but the girl and her mom had waited to see if something had worked out for me. I told thm it hadn't and they told me they would help me home by having me point to familiar places. Thanks to them I got home, but the idea of being in a strangers car was definitely not exactly the best of ideas so don't ever follow my example. However, my consolation in the moment was if they were going to kidnap me they would have done it by the time they had offered me a ride.

More to come later...